Talking Technically

Percussive rock drilling

A century of drilling s
and development
5200 m/s
Over the last 100 years or so there
have been rapid and impressive
+
increases in efficiency and pro-
ductivity in tophammer drilling. –
Technical development started
from hitting a steel manually by a
sledgehammer, through pneumat-
ic handheld drills and rig-mounted
multiple drills, to today’s high-
frequency hydraulic drills with
optional automatic control utiliz- 2 x piston length
ing state-of-the-art technology to
achieve top efficiency.

Principles Figure 1: Stress level in shock wave.

In percussive tophammer drilling,
energy is transmitted from the rock
drill via the shank adapter, drill steel
and drill bit to the rock, where it is used
for crushing.
A pneumatic or hydraulic rock drill
generates the energy required to break
the rock. A pressure is applied on drive
area a or b (in Figure 2), which drives
the impact piston forwards and back-
wards.
The impact piston of a hydraulic rock
drill strikes the shank adapter typically
50-60 times per second, a frequency of
50-60 Hz, although there are examples
of rock drills with much higher frequen-
cy like the COP 3038, which operates
at 102 Hz.
The entire system of rock drill, drill
steel, bit, and rock contact must harmo-
nize for maximum drilling economy
Stress waves
Theoretically, the stress wave has a
rectangular shape, and a length of twice
that of the piston. The stress amplitude
depends on the speed of the piston at the
moment of impact, and on the relation-
ship between the cross-sectional area
of the piston and that of the drill steel.
It takes about 0.004 second for a stress

Figure 2: Principle of tophammer drilling.

machine housing shank adapter drill rod drill bit

impact piston damping piston coupling sleeve rock

drive area drive area flushing hole

a b
rotation splines

Production Drilling in Underground Mining 3

 Talking Technically
Piston 1
– 0,8 MPa
Piston 2 – 12 MPa
Piston 3 – 20 MPa
2 pressive type.
1 With a sharp bit, or when there gen-
Shock-wave amplitude
Figure 3: Stress levels generated by different pistons of same weight.
wave to reach the rock using a 20 m
long drill steel.
The total stresses that the wave
contains are indicated in Figure 1. To
calculate the output power obtained
s
Reflecting wave
+
–
Primary wave
Figure 4: Nature of drill string
‘recoil’ or reflecting wave.
from a rock drill, the wave energy
content is multiplied by the impact
frequency of the piston, and is usu-
ally stated in kilowatts (kW). Two
rock drills having the same nominal
power rating might have quite different
properties. Rock drill design engineers
seek to find the best combinations
of various parameters, such as the
piston geometry, the impact rate and the
frequency for the application in mind.
4 Production Drilling in Underground Mining
3 reflecting waves (see Figure 4).
The shock waves that are generated
by hydraulic and pneumatic rock drills
are significantly different in shape. Drill
rods used with hydraulic rock drills will
normally show substantially longer ser-
vice life, compared with pneumatic rock
drills, because of the higher peak stress
level obtained with the latter’s piston.
The reason is the larger cross-section
needed on the impact piston when oper-
ating at the lower pressures (6-8 bar) of
pneumatic systems compared to the
150-250 bar of hydraulic systems. The
more slender the piston shape, the lower
the stress level (see Figure 3).
In addition, a higher impact pressure,
a longer stroke length, and less piston
weight give a higher impact velocity
and a higher drill steel stress. Another
consideration is that, for any given per-
cussion pressure, the stress in the drill
steel will be higher with reduced cross-
section of the drill rods.
Figure 3 compares the stress level
generated by three different pistons
having the same weight, but differ-
ent shapes and working at different
pressures. The lowest stress, or shock
wave amplitude, is obtained with the long
slender piston working at high pressure.
Efficiency and losses
The wave loses some 5-7% of its
energy for every additional coupling,
as it travels along the drill string. This
loss is partly due to the difference in
cross-sectional area between the rod
and coupling sleeve, and partly due to
imperfect contact between the rod faces.
The poorer the contact, the greater the
energy loss.
When the shock wave reaches the bit,
the buttons are forced against the rock,
thereby crushing it. The efficiency at the
bit never reaches 100%, because some
of the energy is reflected as recoils or
The recoils can be of tensile or com-
erally is a shock wave with a too high
energy content, or when there is poor
rock contact, we get tensile wave reflec-
tions.
The poorer the contact between
the bit and the rock, the less is the bit
­efficiency.
With a worn bit, or when we have
a shock wave with too low energy con-
tent, we get compression wave recoils.
Both recoil types cause damage to the
drill steel and rock drill, but the damage
can be reduced with an ­efficient damper
arrangement (see Figure 11, page 7).
Percussion pressure
It is only when drilling in sufficiently
hard rock that the maximum achievable
energy per blow can be utilized. In soft
rock, the percussion pressure, and thus
the energy per blow, will have to be low-
ered to reduce the recoils.
To get the longest possible service
life from shank adapters and rods, it is
important to ensure that the working
pressure (and impact energy) is matched
to the rock conditions and the drill
string at all times (see Figure 5).
Feed force
Drill feed maintains the drill bit in close
contact with the rock to get benefit from
the shock waves. However, the bit must

Percussion pressure
Soft rock Hard rock
Figure 5: Percussion pressure is lowered in
softer rock to reduce reflected energy.
Feeding
Low percussion High percussion
pressure pressure
Figure 6: Feed force must be match-
ed to percussion pressure.
Figure 7: Relationship between impact
frequency and drill bit rotation.
still be able to rotate. The feed force
must always be matched to the percus-
sion pressure.
To do this, the feed force is increased
until the joints are well tightened (but
still easy to loosen) at a good penetra-
tion rate. Further increase will cause
deviation and shorter ­service life of the
drill steel due to problems with uncou-
pling the rods from a high tightening
torque.
In the case of poor feed, the penetra-
tion rate will drop, and probably the
rotation torque will not be high enough
to tighten the couplings, which will run
‘open’. The service life of the drill steel
will thus be shortened.
Production Drilling in Underground Mining 5
Figure 8: Working relationship between bit diameter (x-axis) and speed of rotation for a given drill.
If the impact pressure (and power) is
increased, the required feed force will
be increased (see Figure 6).
Rotation
The purpose of rotation is to turn the
drill bit to a suitable new position for the
next blow, giving the bit a correct index-
ation. Using button bits, the periphery
is turned about 10 mm between blows.
Consequently, the rotation rate needs
to be increased using higher impact
frequency and reduced bit diameter (see
Figures 7 and 8). If the actual rotation is
not smooth for a fixed impact frequency,
shank adapter life will be reduced.
When using insert bits instead of
button bits, the recommended rotation
rate is 10-20% higher.
Flushing
Drill cuttings are removed from the hole
bottom to the surface by water flushing
or air blowing, or a combination (water
mist). As the power output from rock
drills increases, giving increased pen-
etration rate, efficient flushing becomes
more important. The flushing capacity
must be increased with larger bits and
larger difference between the bit and
rod size diameters
The required flushing speed will
depend on:
Talking Technically
• specific gravity and particle size –
the larger or heavier the particles,
the higher the flushing speed that is
required;
• particle shape – spherical particles
require more speed than flaky, leaf
shaped particles.
A rule-of-thumb is that the flushing
speed in the hole should be a minimum
of 0.5 m/s for water flushing and 10
m/s for air flushing (or water mist). The
flushing medium is normally water for
underground drilling.
Setting parameters
The drilling parameters for percussion
pressure, feed force, and rotation must
harmonize, in order to optimize drilling
economy.
In practice, the driller sets the per-
cussion pressure to get an acceptable,
but not excessive penetration rate, and
then sets the rotational speed with
regard to the percussive frequency and
bit diameter.
When drilling starts, the feed
is adjusted to get even and smooth
­r otation. If this is not achieved, the
percussion and feed pressure can be
progressively reduced. Smooth and even
rotation will result in good ­penetration
and long component ­service lives.
Lost energy, representing low effici-
ency, will result in excess heat generation.
 Talking Technically

Soft/Medium hard rock Hard rock Very hard rock

10,000 psi 30,000 psi 50,000 psi 70,000 psi

70 MPa 210 MPa 350 MPa 480 MPa

Figure 9: A range of rock types and hardnesses, which can be tackled by rock drills successfully.

The temperature of the adapter sleeve
can be checked to ensure that the
drilling parameters are correctly set.
Immediately after drilling, the tem-
perature should be approximately 45
degrees C when drilling with water
flushing and about 60 degrees C for
air flushing. Atlas Copco provides
a temperature gauge: part number
P/N 9850 8715 00. Loose couplings will
cause drilling problems, but they can be
tightened during drilling by increasing
the friction of the bit against the hole
bottom. This can be done by increasing
the feed, increasing or decreasing the
rotation rate, or by changing the bit.
Additional factors in
longhole drilling
There are some special parameters that
have to be borne in mind for longhole
drilling.
Water entry: The entry of water
into a rock drill and the hydraulic

Figure 10: Comparison of properties for the two stroke lengths in the COP 2550UX rock drill.

Impact Impact Impact

Power (kW) Pressure (bar) Energy (J)

26 260
Percussion Data COP 2550UX
25 250 550 Feed Force
Stroke length 3

24 240
6
23 230 Stroke 3 500

22 220
r

8
we
Po

21 210
gy

450 Stroke length 2

er
En

20 200
r
su

5
es

4
Pr

19 190 P
400 E E E=
18 180 f
1
P= Impact power
17 170
E= Impact energy
3 350
Stroke 2 f = Frequency
16 160

15 150

14 140 300

Equal Impact Energy

13 130

12 120 250
A changed stroke length and impact pressure
11 110 can maintain the impact energy
10 100 2 7 200
but increse the frequency and the impact power.

38 40 45 50 54 Frequency (Hz)
The chart shows indata for impact pressure 180 bar with stroke length 3 (intersection 1).
The frequency is read to 40 Hz (2), the impact power at this frequency is 16,8 kW (3) and the impact energy is 420 J (4).
By changing to stroke length 2 and maintain the impact energy 420J (5) the impact pressure needs to be set to 238 bar (6).
The frequency achieved is 53 Hz (7) and the new impact power is 22,2 kW (8).

6 Production Drilling in Underground Mining


1 the rock and, therefore, the penetration
3 strokes 2 and 3 give high impact ener-
“floating”
position
Figure 11: Hydraulic double damper.
system may, especially when in com-
bination with drill cuttings, lead to
premature wear and failure of rock
drill and hydraulic system components.
Consequently there will be high run-
ning costs and downtime.
This risk can be limited by using
a drill collar assembled on the shank
adapter when drilling upwards. Worn
out flushing seals must be changed
immediately. The new COP 2550UX
rock drill has extra seals to cope with
high flushing pressure and prevent
water ingress, especially in drilling up-
holes. Water from the ‘tell-tale’ hole at
the front of Atlas Copco drills gives a
signal to the operator when the seals are
worn out.
Dirt entry: Dirt in combination
with water will cause heavy wear and
reduce the service life of components.
All Atlas Copco rock drills sold on
underground drill rigs have pressurized
mating surfaces, which means that the
lubrication air pressure, generally 2-3
bar, is applied to the mating surfaces
and cavities for the tie rods, preventing
dirt entry.
Heavy drill strings: A heavy drill
string may cause problems, especially
when drilling long holes downwards
with tube drill strings such as TDS 76
and TDS 87. The high contact pressure
at the bit leads to high rotation torques,
which may lead to problems with
uncoupling the threads and high wear
on the driver in the rock drill. With an
extractor device, uncoupling the tubes
Production Drilling in Underground Mining 7
2 a lower impact energy and a higher fre-
Constant
1 oil flow
8 Stroke length 2 in Figure 10 is thus more
4
5
7 6
can be eased, even if the drill string is
not stuck. With a hanging drill string,
the extractor helps the percussion in
­‘rattling loose’ the drill string.
Adapting impact power to
rock and bits
The concept of impact power can be
confusing, since a combination of high
energy and low frequency can give
equally large power as for low energy
and high frequency. Two rock drills
having the same nominal power rating
might therefore have quite different
properties.
Simplified, impact energy require-
ment derives from rock properties
and the hole dimension. Increased
­frequency, and the power, then gives a
higher penetration rate.
Atlas Copco’s COP 1838HE drill is
especially developed for long hole drill-
ing with a bit diameter 76-89 mm. The
impact piston has two different stroke
lengths, giving ‘two rock drills in one’.
COP 2550UX is a new 25 kW rock
drill for T51 drill steel with a bit diam-
eter 76–115 mm. It also has two stroke
positions, and is supplied with a power-
ful hydraulic extractor to save time and
drill steel.
Figure 10 shows the impact power as
a function of the impact rate for stroke
lengths 2 and 3. The corresponding
impact pressure at each graph point is
shown in black. There is also a compari-
son of the same impact energy for the
Talking Technically
two strokes. For soft rock or small bits
quency is preferable because each blow
contains enough impact energy to crush
rate increases the higher the frequency.
suitable because, for a certain (low)
energy, it gives the highest frequency.
For hard rock or large bits high
impact energy is required to crush the
rock. With the COP 2550UX, both
gies if the pressure is raised. Stroke
length 3 has a lower frequency and is
thus most suitable if the input power is
limited. If not, stroke 2 can be used.
This means also that a rock drill does
not necessarily have to be run at its rated
impact power to perform optimally. The
impact energy required for the actual bit-
rock combination is much less than the
maximum impact energy.
A change between stroke lengths
but at the same impact pressure does
not normally require any change in
feed force. It is therefore advisable to
choose a rock drill with as much impact
energy as needed to crush the rock, but
not excessively high, and the frequency
set as high as possible to get the best
penetration rate.
Obviously a rock drill cannot be
tuned to deliver the ‘ideal’ shock wave
energy to crush the rock throughout the
drilling operation. The bit gets worn and
so the ideal energy amount increases,
but it’s possible to set the parameters to
a good compromise.
Hydraulic dual damper
Atlas Copco’s more recently devel-
oped hydraulic rock drills like COP
1838-series and COP 4050MUX have a
dual-damping system. This is an effec-
tive device for giving a good ‘­suspension’
of the drill string just as it absorbs com-
pression recoil energy.
Older models like COP 1238ME
have a hydraulic single-stage damping
system, which is less effective and lacks
the energy-absorbing feature, but still is
better than drilling without damper.
The dual-damping system pro-
vides good contact between the bit
and rock to increase penetration rate,
and give a good tightening torque on
 Talking Technically
12a
12b
Figures 12a and 12b: Operation of a hydraulic extractor.
coupling threads. It also increases shank
adapter and drill steel service lives.
Referring to Figure 11, the basic
reflex damper system consists of a
damping piston (1), accumulator (2) and
shank adapter (3). The impact piston
is (4). When the reflected shock wave
knocks the damper piston backwards (to
the right), the pressure rapidly rises in
the chamber (5) as the check valve (6) is
closed. This forces oil in chamber (5) to
be released to the oil reservoir (7) over
the edge (8). This absorbs the energy
by means of heat. At the same time, the
accumulator (2) is charged, to provide
a fast movement of the damper piston
back to establishing contact again with
the shank adapter (3).
A good way of checking that a cor-
rect feed force is applied is to monitor
the damper pressure. When drilling
horizontally it should be kept constant
at a certain level depending on the
rock drill model, the drill steel and bit.
8 Production Drilling in Underground Mining
When drilling upwards, the damper
pressure will increase due to the
increased weight of the drill string, and
the opposite when drilling downwards.
Atlas Copco longhole drill rigs have
a control system feature called DPCI
(Damper Pressure Controlled Impact),
which senses the damper pressure and
maintains set impact pressures depend-
ing on the damper pressure.
Hydraulic extractor
A major contributor to overall produc-
tivity and economy in longhole drilling
is Atlas Copco’s device, the hydraulic
extractor, which is optional on all Atlas
Copco hydraulic rock drills for longhole
drilling.
The extractor is comparable to a slid-
ing hammer and it eliminates jamming
in the hole, but can also be used to ease
loosening of joints during longhole
drilling downwards. In Figure 12a, the
impact piston (on the right) has hit the
shank adapter and started a return stroke
away from it. The extractor piston has
been hit by the shank adapter through
the collar on the middle of the shank.
The extractor piston ‘bounces’ on the
hydraulic fluid (red) and hits the shank
adapter again, but in the right direction
to free a stuck steel, as ­indicated by the
‘feed force’ arrow.
Feed system
In order to obtain controlled rotation
torque for good, but not excessive, cou-
pling tightening, Atlas Copco uses its
RPCF (Rotation Pressure Controlled
Feed) feature in the drill control system.
If the rotation pressure (and torque)
increases, the feed force is reduced, and
vice-versa, in a controlled way. If the
rotation pressure gets excessively high,
the feed is reversed (anti-jamming) in
order not to get stuck.
The drilling equipment performs best
when the feed is applied in a controlled
and smooth way. A hydraulic cylinder
feed gives a smoother operation than a
chain driven feed.
Set parameters
All final settings must take place at
the face, where the effect of parameter
changes can be assessed properly.
Atlas Copco gives thorough general
instructions on how to set the initial
rock drill parameters at every start up
of a new rig.
By using the Atlas Copco-developed
drilling simulation program Diarot, one
can predict drilling performance and
give settings recom­menda­tions in order
to optimize drilling for the conditions.
Again, all final settings must take place
on site in any case.
Hydraulic rock drill
suitability
See the separate machine specifications
in the final section of this reference edi-
tion as regards the suitable conditions
for each drill model.
Fredrik Öberg